Order staying US executions of Mexicans [ICJ] News
Order staying US executions of Mexicans [ICJ]

Mexico v. United States of America, International Court of Justice, February 5, 2003 [ruling that the US must "take all measures necessary" to ensure that three Mexican nations are not executed pending a final judgment of the Court in a case involving Mexicans on death row in the US]. Read the order here [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

India sues Union Carbide over Bhopal industrial disaster

On April 8, 1985, the government of India filed a lawsuit against the Union Carbide Corporation for the Bhopal industrial disaster in which forty-two tons of methyl isocyanate gas was released from the pesticide plant of a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. The disaster initially killed 2,000 Indians and injured another 200,000. These injuries led to another 16,000 deaths as a result of exposure to the gas. In 1989, the parties reached a $470 million settlement out of court. Learn more about the Bhopal industrial disaster from the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department of the government of Madhya Pradesh.

Seventeenth Amendment ratified

On April 8, 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the US Constitution, providing for the election of senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures, was ratified. Learn more about the Seventeenth Amendment.